Views of Maitland

People

PIERCE Robert James

Gender:	male
Date of Birth:	1841
Place of Birth:	Dublin Country: Ireland
Father:
Mother:
Date of Arrival:	1864
Ship:	Tornado
Naturalisation:	n/a
Marital status:	married
Spouse:	KEYS Martha Fitzgerald (-1873)
Date Married:	1871
Place Married:	Muswellbrook
Children:	John Beresford Hudson (1872-1917)
Occupations:	coroner, surgeon, alderman and mayor
Places of Residence:	Dublin, Waratah NSW (1865-1870), Muswellbrook (1870-1875), West Maitland (1872-)
Date of Death:	23 January 1889
Place of Death:	West Maitland
Buried at:	Bengalla Cemetery, near Muswellbrook
Profile:
Dr Robert James Pierce was a respected and significant public figure in later nineteenth century Maitland. Born in Dublin, he studied medicine and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, and qualified in 1864. Soon after gaining his qualifications, he travelled to Australia. He practised his profession in Melbourne, Newcastle and Muswellbrook before arriving in Maitland in 1875 where he remained until his death in 1889. Acknowledged as a ‘skilled and thoughtful physician’, his obituary notes that ‘during his residence of about sixteen years in Maitland [he] has been conspicuously active and energetic in promoting numerous useful movements’ (Maitland Mercury, 26 January 1889). His public contributions included his work as an honorary medical surgeon, consulting surgeon and also President of the Maitland Hospital; President of the Philharmonic Society; alderman and mayor of West Maitland Borough Council; a member of Maitland Lodge of Unity; an active member of the Jockey Club and Maitland Amateur Turf Club; and a member of the Maitland Scientific Society. At the time of his death, he was also raising funds to establish a home nursing service which was subsequently named the Pierce Memorial Nurses’ Home in his honour. Pierce’s contribution was also memorialised in a fountain that stood outside the Mercury offices on the corner of Hunter and High Streets from 1889 to 1839: the plaque is now in the Maitland Library Collection. Pierce’s impact spread further than Maitland. On receiving the news of his death, a report from the Upper Hunter and residents of Muswellbrook lamented ‘What? The skilled physician, the sweet singer, the eloquent speaker, the gentle, kindly, warm-hearted man gone?’ (Maitland Mercury, 31 January 1889). His brother, John Pierce(1842-1875) was also a medical practitioner who arrived from England in 1867 and worked in Newcastle and Maitland until his death.

Related Records

Documents:
Annual Report of the Maitland Hospital for the Year 1873, West
Maitland Hospital - research notes, newspaper clippings, photographs and other material. Also	Youldon, Jackie
Probate packets
Monuments:
Pierce memorial foun	other
Sites:
Maitland Hospital (old)	Maitland	Maitland City
Themes:
Health - medical practitioners
Publications, Reports, Theses:
Australian Medical Pioneers Index (AMPI), Victoria’s Virtual Library Free settler or felon? Maitland Mercury Morrison, W. Frederic, The Aldine Centennial History of New South Wales, 1888, Sydney, The Aldine Publishing Company 1888 Turner, John, The Rise of High Street, Maitland: A Pictorial History, Council of the City of Maitland, Maitland Bicentennial Community Committee and the Maitland Mercury 1988

Views of Maitland Record No.: P533
Created: 05/02/2019
By: Janis Wilton
Modified
By: Janis Wilton